SJ POWELL
SJ Powell is a speculative fiction writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their work is concerned with non-human being(s), animal others, and worlds that are not our own. They received a BA in English, Africana Studies, and Environmental Studies from Williams College. They are a member of the hotbed artist collective.
About
CV
Email
TwitterEducation
Williams College, Williamstown, MA, Class of 2022
Bachelor of Arts in English, Concentration in Africana Studies and Environmental Studies
Honors Thesis: We Are Not Strangers and Other Encounters. Collection of 5 short stories in the speculative genre. Advisor: Prof. James Shepard.
Honors and Achievements
Dean’s List, Williams College, 2018-2022
Class of 1960s Scholar in English
Highest Honors in English
Benjamin B. Wainwright, 1920, Prize in English
Robert F. Rosenberg Prize in Environmental Studies
Hubbard Hutchinson 1917 Memorial Fellowship
Art for Social Justice Prize
Research and Writing Experience
First Reader, Hexagon
First Reader, Fusion Fragment
The Micro-Residency at Bischoff Inn, Tamaqua, PA, March 2024
Wassaic Project Residency, Wassaic, NY, Summer 2024
Hurston/Wright Foundation Virtual Writers Weekend Retreat, Summer 2023
- Summer Fiction Workshop (Instructor: Destiny Birdsong)
City Books Writer’s Residency, Pittsburgh, PA, Spring 2023
Yale Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), Yale University, Summer 2021
- Produced a 25-page research paper examining the employment of monstrosity as a motivating metaphor and cultural idiom used to comprehend and constrain Black existence within the United States.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, Williams College, 2020 - 2022
- Conducted research into Black horror cinema, monster theory, and Black feminist theories of Black ontology and posthumanism and produced a literature review and proposal for critique.
Presentations
“Kudzu Boy Dreaming.” City Books & Poetry Lounge Residents’ Reading, Poetry Lounge, April 2024.
“The Companion.” Red Dog Reading Series, Carlow University, October 2023.
“a cult of tragedy.” English Honors Thesis Presentation, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, June 2022.
“call the crows home.” Winner of the Benjamin B. Wainwright Award for Best Short Fiction, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, March 2022. Judge: Pulitzer Prize Winner Edward P. Jones.
“Mother of Monsters: A New History of Black Female Monstrosity.” Research presentation given at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium, Yale University, July 2021.
“Farewell to the Flesh: Blackness, Monstrosity, and the Aptitude of the Human.” Research roundtable presented at Mellon Mays Northeast Regional Conference, Brown University, February 2021.
Publications
“The Other Shore,” Atlas and Alice Literary Magazine: Issue 18, May 2021.
“Mooncalf,” Bunker Projects Hand-off Series, January 2023.
“Kudzu Boy Dreaming,” FIYAH Lit Magazine: Issue 26, April 2023.
“The Companion,” Fusion Fragment #19, November 2023.
“Brood Baby,” Cosmic Horror Monthly #50, August 2024.
“Kudzu Boy Dreaming,” (reprint), The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror Vol. 5, edited by Paula Guran, October 2024.
“Playhouse Androids’ Lament on the Ice-Moon Galatea,” Almost Perfect Press, October 2024.